Chinese sales of foreign phone makers, including Apple, drop 9.7% in May

Sales of foreign-branded mobile phones in China, including those of Apple Inc, fell 9.7% year-on-year in May, according to data released by a government-affiliated research company on Friday.

Calculations based on the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed that May shipments of foreign-branded phones in China fell to 4.54 million handsets from the same month last year.